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The "where i buy a gaming pc from" thread

Hello all with crimbo finally getting closer amd closer i have my eyes on a new much needed gaming spec im planning to get away from my 6450. Ive come across this via shopper: http://www.palicomp.co.uk/gaming-pcs.../prod_366.html
It looks a good spec for 1k any other reccomendations within this price range? Particularly if you have the machine yourself!

I would also recommend checking Amazon. They tend to offer the same deals as newegg and then usually have another bundle offer thats even cheaper. It takes some effort to find one with the exact (or close enough) two things you want, but its worth the extra effort.

thanks guys with newegg though do the prices include the tax and shipping to the UK?
Im not too clued up on putting a PC together just yet but i really wantto drop this old AMD card and my machine is about 4 years old now.

It's a perfect time to learn to build your own PC! There are video guides all over the internet and basically it just comes down to putting things where they fit :P
The hard part is buying everything that's compatible, but even that just takes a few minutes of research. Not sure on newegg's shipping. I prefer Newegg because I know they are good about replacing DOA parts. And if you order enough computer components you will inevitably eventually have some DOAs. I don't know about Amazon, but they might also be good about refunds/replacements.

Scan, Aria and Amazon were who I used to build my PC (in the UK). For some reason Aria were cheaper on most things except the graphics card (which I got from Scan), case, PSU, SSD and generic as hell DVD drive (which I got from Amazon). Now, though, whenever I'm price comparisoning Scan comes out on top. I got my other graphics card (first was a GTX 580, second a 680) from them as well. And a hard drive for about £20 less than it was on Aria.

I'd avoid ebuyer unless you have a good track record with City link delivery service - they are not always the cheapest, and I've found their customer support to be terrible ("Oh yes sir, we'll refund your failed delivery" - only to refund less than half. this was a scheduled day for a small premium that I had booked off work, had to travel a few towns over for it!).

Overclockers are solid, but have limited stock selection and sometimes have a good deal - they are pricey otherwise, and I've heard some pretty booming complaints on the internet (remember that you only ever hear the bad). That said, I've never had a problem with them myself and would recommend them.

Scan and Aria are both very solid shouts. I wouldn't bother with anybody outside the Scan/Aria/Overclockers ring, else your P&P will hit the roof (talking like £20 Saturday delivery for Overclockers). I normally build a cart on all the sites and see who comes out on top with P&P.

I don't trust amazon at all, because they are sending sensitive computer components internationally, and you always run the risk of mishaps with stuff like that (plus Royal Mail)

EDIT: This came up recently, granted he wanted a site to build it for him, but I stand by it (I was a bit more obvious in my ebuyer criticism there, but some friends have softened my opinion).

P.S. Crap, forgot about Novatech.co.uk. Friend recommended them, and while I've never used them their prices don't look bad at all.

For my last PC build a year ago I got 80% of the components from ebuyer and the remainder from Overclockers where they were cheaper or ebuyer didn't have stock, both were fine and I'd use either again.

If you weren't in a hurry then ebuyer used to offer free delivery within 3-5 business days which was a useful saving, though I see that's changed and now they always charge. Funnily enough I've had most problems in the past with the DPD guys that Overclockers use and none at all with Citylink. YMMV depending where you live, clearly.

I can't speak for the RMA service of either as I haven't had to return anything.

Worth keeping an eye on the weekly offers at Overclockers which offer some good deals.

I found the guides at bit-tech to be very useful advice for putting together a best-buy gaming build. Last one was from August, which should all still be solid advice and prices may have dropped a bit from there.

I found the guides at bit-tech to be very useful advice for putting together a best-buy gaming build. Last one was from August, which should all still be solid advice and prices may have dropped a bit from there.

Their advice looks slightly outdated (not their fault), and they seem to like the ASUS Maximus V Gene... which is a waste of money for most people.

I normally build a cart on all the sites and see who comes out on top with P&P.

I don't trust amazon at all, because they are sending sensitive computer components internationally, and you always run the risk of mishaps with stuff like that (plus Royal Mail)

1. What I did was go to Aria, Scan and Amazon, compared the prices on everything I wanted and then priced up various combinations. I managed to get the price down about £50 that way because the graphics card, an MSI GTX 580 Twin Frozr II, was that much cheaper on Scan than Aria that even with P&P it was still lower. I think that was the only part I got from Scan, initially anyway, everything else has come from them and their service is just excellent. In fact I don't even price compare with Aria any more, I probably should though.

2. I get what you're saying, in the end I only bought pretty basic parts from Amazon. The case I wanted was out of stock at Aria so I got that from them, I got the SSD, DVD drive and... That might've been it, so they were a) fairly robust parts, nothing as sensitive as the motherboard, CPU or graphics card and b) the sort of thing I could have either identified as fit for use or not pretty much straight away or RMA'd without much hassle. I definitely wouldn't recommend buying anything with more than 10 transistors from Amazon...

I've recently heard that eBuyer are crap. Ok, this is from just one friend's experience, but he bought a keyboard from them and they managed to send him two duds and one wrong model! That may not really be eBuyer's fault but you do have to wonder where they find their stock. And they did replace them quickly. It did mean he was sans keyboard for an entire week though.